


Like Old Times

by astruvia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Haggar is a bitch, Langst, i wasn't sure how graphic this would get but, i'm sorry i'm a bitch, oops i deleted it, somewhat?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-07-03 10:35:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15817170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astruvia/pseuds/astruvia
Summary: Starting over because I accidentally deleted this :(The paladins of Voltron will stop at nothing to help each other, but sometimes, things seem out of handAKA Haggar is a bitch





	1. Good Old Days

Someone was honking outside the school, and _everyone_ knew who it was.

The thing was, no one really minded anyways. A few of the students were giggling behind their hands, and a few craned their necks to look out the window, hoping to catch sight of the iconic car parked out on the curb. The teachers struggled to continue their lessons without breaking into small smiles or, in other cases, groans.

The honking, while irritating to the few classes trying to focus on their exams, was a welcome sound, despite having interrupted the silence of the schools everyday for the past two years. There was something about the driver and his smile and his unique career that made the sound a relief. It just meant that he hadn’t left.

A full two minutes after the honking had started, the final bell rang, and the stampede of feet soon left the middle and high schools abandoned as kids began running out onto the street.

Two of the students made a beeline for the blue car that was still honking, seemingly impossibly loud in the parking lot. Behind them, a crowd of students were chasing after them, or so it seemed 

The doors unlocked and the honking stopped as soon as the duo arrived at the sides, yanking on the doors and tumbling into the insides. Instantly, the doors closed and locked, and the oldest of the two grabbed onto the driver. “ _Go!”_

Lance didn’t have to be told twice. He slammed on the accelerate, swerving through the lanes and out onto the road.

All around him, people were screaming, scrambling to grab onto something or someone. Lance found himself with someone clinging onto his arm and other choking his neck.

“Lance!” the boy in shotgun screamed. “Slow down, or I’m telling Mamá about-”

Lance slammed on the brakes, narrowly missing running the red light. “Tell Mamá about _what?_ I didn’t do anything… did I?”

His younger brother sighed as he sat back, buckling his seatbelt and fighting the smirk on his face. “You _know_ I have a long list, Lance. For one, _speeding_.”

Lance turned to face his brother, a sweet smile on his face. “Ramiro, _mi amor, hermanito, mi hermano favorito, por favor, no-_ ”

There was a squawk from the backseat. “ _Ramiro_ is your favorite brother? Lance, what about me? And I’m telling Benito you didn’t choose him. 

Lance swivelled in his seat to glare at the kid squashed into the back. He pointed a finger at him, narrowing his blue eyes in a way that might have seemed terrifying if he hadn’t been fighting a smile. “Look, Andrés. You’re the one who stole _all_ of Hunk’s food the last time he came over. Those cookies were for me and me _alone_.”

“Green light!”

Grunting comically, Lance turned straight to face the road again, starting forward at a slower pace than before. “And _Ben_ always beats me up. No way he can be my favorite. 

“Besides,” he added, almost like an afterthought, “he’s the father of the rascals we have to pick up next. I can’t forgive him for that. 

“... Don’t tell them I said that.”

By the time they finally reached home, Lance’s nephew was crying and one of his nieces was screaming. The twins were notoriously loud and sensitive, and somehow, they’d both found something to complain about on the five minute drive home.

Well, Lance mused as he unbuckled them both from their seats and hefted one into each arm, they had a good excuse. They were, afterall, only three years old.

Lance was almost sorry as he unlocked the front door, introducing the screaming children into the previously silent household. “Mamá! We’re home!”

From that moment on, the house was a flurry of movement. Lance got the twins into their seats at the table, despite their protests, and convinced Ramiro, as the oldest of Lance’s younger siblings, to feed them. He appointed Andrés to babysit Marisol, Benito’s oldest daughter. Lance’s mother was rushing around the kitchen, somehow everywhere at once, her previously perfected bun an unravelling mess in a halo around her head. A baby was screaming upstairs, and Lance ran to save his older sister’s baby.

By the time the house had quietened, the younger kids asleep and the older ones doing their homework, Lance and his mother were worn out.

“Where is Benito and Lina when you need them?” Lance moaned, collapsing into a chair and rubbing out the kinks in his neck. “What happened to their wives?”

His mother sighed heavily, landing into the chair besides him. “I thought I’d give them a break. They’ve been really mess, you know, and neither got their honeymoon…”

Lance laughed, slightly hysterical. “Yeah. I get it. Want help with dinner?”

“Actually, Lance, I wanted to talk to you.”

Now, anyone, _anyone_ , with a mother like Lance’s knew a sentence like that meant his ultimate demise. Immediately, alarm bells went off in his head, and he froze for a moment, his whole life flashing before his eyes. Had he done something wrong? When was the last time he’d broken something? The last time he cooked? He _had_ flushed the toilet that morning, hadn’t he?

“Yes?”

“Well,” the woman started, kicking her feet up onto the chair next to her, “ever since Benito and Lina left on their trip, I’ve been thinking about you. You’re getting old, Lance.”

“I’m only twenty-one.” His mother smiled, as if trying to reassure herself. “My point is that… You have to settle down sometime. And I know being a paladin of Voltron is important to you, and I respect that! I’m so proud to have a defender of the universe as my son, but… It’s dangerous, Lance.”

Lance laughed nervously. “Yeah, I know. It’s scary up there, but I like it. I love it, actually.”

“I know you do,” she said kindly, reaching over to take his hand. Her eyes fell to it, tracing the scars across his hand and forearms with a gentle finger. “It just worries me, Lance. How long will you continue fighting for this universe? I-Is there a _retirement_ age for paladins? "

“Allura’s father was nearly forty in Earth years before he died.”

The smile Lance’s mother gave him was pained. “That’s exactly my concern. Lance, I know you love being a paladin, but staying as one as you grow old? It’ll take away your life. As much as you may like it, you’re still a human with a life here on Earth. Being a paladin shouldn’t take away from that.”

“I know, Mamá.” Lance squeezed his mother’s hands and tried to give her a warm smile. “I know. Things have gotten better, though. Planets still want to join our Alliance, but the Galra are just about gone. They’re not strong enough to stage an attack, no matter how small, and we don’t have any other enemies out there. I won’t be going up into space as often.”

“That’s good,” she said, only sounding slightly relieved. “Have you thought about what you will do, once Voltron isn’t needed to protect every corner of our universe?”

Lance paused then, caught slightly off guard. Yeah, he’d thought about it. He had a creative mind, and he liked thinking up extravagant plans for his future. Maybe he’d become a diplomat like Keith and continue to visit all these alien planets in space. Or maybe he could just continue being a pilot at the Garrison, and climb up the ranks until he was Shiro’s second-in-command. Or maybe he could move to New York and buy himself a penthouse in the middle of the city, where he could watch the city life go by.

But did he really know what he wanted to do? What he wanted to be? For all the bright, colorful images his brain came up with, he couldn’t imagine leaving this small, dull town. He loved it here, and after so many years of action, he just wanted to settle down somewhere peaceful with someone he loved.

Before he could formulate a coherent sentence to explain what he was thinking, Lance felt his phone chime in his pocket. Frowning a little in concern, wondering what it could be possibly be reminding him about, he pulled it out.

“I need to go!” he squawked, leaping out of his seat. “Fuck-”

“Lance! Language!" 

“- _Dios míos,_ I’m late! I’ll see you later, Mamá, and I might be home for dinner? If not I’ll get something on the way home, and I’ll call when I’m on my way, and-”

“Lance! You’re _late!_ ”

Lance grinned from behind his jacket. “ _Lo siento, te amo, adiós-_ ”

“ _Te amo, mijo._ Now, hurry! But, Lance-”

The young man turned from where he was hopping around the front door, grabbing onto a wall to keep his balance. “Yes, Mamá?”

“You haven’t had a girlfriend, or boyfriend, since high school, and I _know_ you have a little someone in your mind. It’s a mother’s gift.”

Lance smiled weakly at his mother. “Don’t worry about me, Mamá. I’ll find the perfect girl… or boy… and then you’ll wish that you had never said a thing.”

_____

“McClain! You’re late, _again_.”

Lance grinned sheepishly as he slid into his seat around the long table. “I’m sorry, Commander. I had to pick up the kids again, and-”

“I didn’t ask for an excuse, Captain,” Iverson said tiredly. “Sit down. We were just starting.”

Besides him, Shiro sent Lance a _look_ that consisted of a small frown and a raised brow. Lance’s smile tightened as he tried to portray an apology with merely the muscles in his face, and the older man’s brow loosened slightly as a small grin appeared on his face, understanding immediately. Shiro shook his head lightly, almost seeming to laugh to himself, and Lance relaxed. Obviously, Shiro didn’t care as much about attendance than Iverson did.

“As I was about to say,” Iverson said, continuing from where he had left off with nothing more than another annoyed glance in Lance’s direction, “our communications office recently received a message from deep space. Officer Kogane here kindly translated it for us…”

Lance’s eyes flitted to the side, and he was only partly surprised to see Keith standing off to the side of the room, half hidden by the shadows. As per usual, his face was impassive as he stepped forward, a small remote in his hand. When their eyes met from across the table, however, a small smile graced Keith’s face before it was gone.

Better than nothing.

Keith cleared his throat and clicked a button on the remote. “It’s a language I haven’t come across very often, and it took a few tries to decipher the code they added, which is why it took so long. My apologies, Commander.”

Iverson waved a hand. “What does it say?”

Keith pressed another button, and a stream of words appeared on the floating screens scattered across the table. “It’s a call for an alliance, to make it short, from the planet of Xilok. Until the paladins of Voltron freed them, they had been under Galra control, and they wish to ally themselves with Earth as a thank you.”

Lance folded his hands thoughtfully, running his eyes over the message. It was short but heartfelt. He remembered the planet and the small, mostly peaceful aliens that had been helpless against the Galra.

“Commander Shirogane? Captain McClain? Officer Kogane? What can you tell us about these aliens?”

Shiro spoke up first when Keith and Lance glanced at him. “They’re small, mostly humanoid creatures. They’re peaceful beings with almost no form of an army. Their leader was indefinitely kind to us after Voltron freed them.”

“If I could say something, Commander,” Lance interrupted. He waited until Shiro had nodded to him before continuing. “I also remember that the Xilokians were somewhat primitive. The few machines they had were equivalent to our Earth’s version of the first wheel, for example. I don’t know how they could have sent a message to us from so far away, and with a _code_ in it as well.”

“What are you suggesting, Captain?”

“Just that we be cautious. While I doubt that there is anyone left in the universe to take a stand against Voltron…” Lance shrugged, shying away from the dozen eyes on him. “Better safe than sorry?”

To his surprise, Keith nodded from where he was still standing besides Iverson. “I agree with Lance. It was suspicious that they would even code a message in the first place. It could have been for precaution, but against who? And the extent and complexity of the code itself didn’t fit well with what I remember of the planet." 

Iverson nodded. “Still, it would be rude for us to ignore such an offer. Kogane, I want you to fly out there and discuss the possibility of a treaty. Now that we know what’s out there, Earth should be forming as many alliances as possible.”

“Retreat if you even _suspect_ a trap,” Shiro added, fixing Keith with a glare. “Report back to us if anything seems off.”

Keith nodded. “Yes, _Commander_.”

“C-commander,” Lance spoke up again, a little sheepishly. Immediately, the other pilots in the room, all of whom had yet to speak, turned to look at him. “Could I propose a-”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Officer Kogane shouldn’t go alone. He may be a diplomat, and a skilled pilot and fighter, but in the instance of a trap, he’d be helpless against an army. A few other pilots should join him, I think…”

Iverson raised a brow with a small nod. “Would I be correct in assuming that you want to join Kogane on his trip?”

Lance smiled lightly. “Yes, sir. As a paladin of Voltron, I also know the culture of Xilok, and I’ve been trained with Keith. We’re a good team.”

From behind Iverson, Lance could see Keith rolling his eyes.

“I understand your concern, Captain, but sending out _two_ paladins of Voltron is risky. We want to look like a strong ally, not a battalion coming to destroy their planet. One is enough.”

“With all due respect, Commander,” Shiro interrupted, not sounding respectful at all, “Lance is the perfect candidate to join Keith. As the Black Paladin, I know Lance’s chivalry makes him an essential teammate and, sometimes, a buffer against Keith’s temper.”

Lance swelled in pride just as Keith scowled at the side of Shiro’s head, undoubtedly insulted by his comment about his temper. Iverson, on the other hand, looked thoughtful, hand reaching up to rub at his chin.

“Kogane? It’s your mission. What do you suggest?”

Keith snapped out of his trance, the scowl falling away to an almost aggressively neutral face. “I would gladly take Lance with me. He’s just as much of a diplomat as myself. No other pilots are necessary to join us. I know Lance counts for more than just one of your fighters.”

“Someone will need to watch your back.”

“Lance will, Commander. If you’re still concerned, you _could_ send a few more pilots to join us, but I hardly deem that necessary.”

Iverson frowned but nodded. “I’ll give you three of my best pilots, besides Captain McClain, of course. That will be all.”

As soon as the meeting ended, the crowd of pilots and pilots-in-training left in a chorus of screeching chairs, while Iverson, Shiro, and Keith remained sitting at the head of the table. There was a small crease in Shiro’s brow, but other than that, they seemed to be at ease.

“You don’t have to do that,” Lance said once the door had slid shut behind the last pilot. Shiro looked up, somehow sensing that he had been speaking to him. “What?”

“You don’t have to stand up for me like that. Give me special treatment.” Lance rubbed the back of his neck and sighed, looking everywhere except into the eyes of everyone else around him. “I know I’m one of your paladins, Shiro, but that doesn’t mean you should treat me differently than the other pilots here. That’s all I am here, anyways. I’m just a pilot.”

Shiro laughed lightly. “Of course, Lance. But you’re not _my_ paladin. You’re _The_ Blue Paladin, and as far as I’m concerned, you don’t belong to me or to anybody else.”

Iverson cleared his throat. “If that’s all clear with you two, Kogane said he wanted to show us something…”

Keith nodded and took the seat two down from Shiro, allowing Lance to take the spot between them. “I’ve been working on decoding the message for the past few days in the Garrison, but outside of it, I’ve been monitoring the skies from the Castle. I borrowed some equipment from Pidge- sorry- Katie Holt, and I picked up a few deep space messages that seemed… out of place." 

He shook himself lightly before picking up his remote again, clicking another button. Abruptly, the message on the screen fell away, revealing a new screen.

“I can’t explain what it is,” Keith said, scrolling through the screen. “With your permission, I want to send a copy to the Holts. Katie is on break and Matt is at home, and Katie is the one who found the first Galran transmissions that led to Voltron.”

Shiro leaned forward on his elbows. “You think the Galra are back? We defeated Lotor already.”

Keith hesitated slightly, fingers tapping rapidly around the remote in his hands, before he nodded curtly. “The transmissions are too similar to what we’ve seen before. Here, take a look.”

The recordings began to play, and Lance immediately felt his face pull into an unpleasant snarl. Whoever was speaking on the recording had the same, gravelly voice of many of the Galra, and most of the words were too easily understandable. Apparently, Shiro thought the same way.

His mechanical hand tightened around the armrest of his chair, and the other massaged the bridge of his nose, a clear sign of stress that he’d picked up over the past three years. Lance offered him a weak smile just as a burst of static came through the recording.

“... paladins of… commence at-... Xilok alliance and… Voltron will… Empire…”

Lance sighed and sat back, his usually abundant energy draining away. “That doesn’t sound good.”

Keith nodded. He had taken the chair across from Shiro, and his elbows were on the table, one hand supporting the weight of his head as he examined the codes. One finger tapped against the side of his face, and his left leg fidgeted under the table. Just like Keith. Always moving, constantly restless, ready for action. His eyes narrowed, still darting over the screens. Lance had never seen him so focused.

Of course, he’d seen him focused before. There had been plenty of times where Lance had seen him darting into battle, his mind concentrated on success and nothing else. That was the the thing about Keith. He always wanted to win. But this Keith was different. Before, he had been reckless and quick, but now? There was a method beneath his passive cover, almost as if Pidge had somehow wedged herself underneath his skin.

Lance shivered. That wasn’t a pleasant thought.

“Lance and I will have to be careful. Xilok is in the next galaxy over, so it’s a distance that we, and any possible enemies, can cover in just a few hours. If anything goes wrong…”

Keith glanced over at Lance, who was already looking at him. Lance’s iconic shit-eating smirk crawled on his face, lifting one corner of his lip before the other. “We’ll take care of them,” he declared. “Or at least, we’ll hold them off. None of them will make it to Earth.”

“If _anything_ goes wrong, alert us,” Shiro said. “I’ll prepare Black and contact the rest of the paladins. Better safe than sorry.”

Lance nodded firmly, sharing a smile with Keith.

This was going to be fun.

_____

“ _Please,_ Dad? _Por favor, Papá._ Please… "

The man at the table sighed, putting down his newspaper and his glasses to look his son in the face. “What did you want me to do?”

Lance clapped his hands, face glowing. “Ramiro and Andrés have a football- soccer- game on Friday, ‘cept I’ll be gone by then, so they need someone else to hold their sign and scream. _Por favor_ , Dad, please? They’d be heartbroken if no one’s there for them. If they can’t have a cool older brother to be there, they need a cool Dad…”

“You know how I feel about games, Lance. I can’t stand the noise.”

“Oh, I bring earplugs to the games, so you can have some of mine. Just be there for them. Maybe hang out in the car if it gets too bad? You know I would normally ask Benito or Lina, but they’re not here, and Mamá already has plans and deadlines to meet…”

“Why don’t you get Hunk?” his dad asked, sounding a little desperate now. “Or Pidge?”

“Neither of them are in town, and Keith’s on the mission with me, and you _know_ Shiro’s busy at the Garrison.” Lance clapped his hands together, briefly considering getting on his knees to beg. “Dad, please?” 

His dad groaned, pulling a tired hand over his face. Lance fought an oncoming smile as the man rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “ _Fine_." 

“Yes!” Lance danced around the table to wrap his father into a hug before skipping away, returning his attention to the flight logs he’d been studying. “Thank you, Dad. _Gracias, gracias._ I’ll make it up to you, promise. Of course, I also need to get in contact with my students over at the dance studio but I _really_ don’t have time right now and I think they prefer a nice call instead of a text or something so could you maybe-”

“I’ll take care of it. Just be safe out there, Lance. It… it was hard enough losing you the first time. Please don’t do it again. For all our sakes.”

Lance looked up to smile at his father, tapping his forehead in a silly salute. “I promise you, Dad. I’m not leaving this family again.”

_____

Never in his life did Lance think he would be so happy to see Blue, but here he was. 

The ride down the zipline and towards the hangars was just as exciting as he remembered, dry wind running past his face and adrenaline coursing through his veins, making his heart pound with anticipation. It almost made it feel like there was another battle to be fought.

Unlike common knowledge, Lance had actually enjoyed the battles in space. There was something about the excitement and the pressure to do well that just seemed _right_ to him, never failing to put an almost feral smile on his face even during the worst circumstances. He thought it was the best feeling in the world to fight with Blue, pushing each other to the end to see how far they could go. There was just _something_ about the speed that Blue could fly at and the weightlessness of space that made these battles so enjoyable.

Lance almost missed them.

Of course, he didn’t miss getting shot and getting hurt and getting Blue hurt, so he was okay without them.

“Blue!” he cried happily once his journey finally ended with him at the cockpit. “Long time no see, eh?”

The lion purred around him, acknowledging his presence and allowing him into her mind. Lance felt the familiar click as their connection snapped into place, not even a little rusty after months of being apart from each other.

“I missed you, girl,” Lance said jovially, running his hands over the controls and his seat, an uncontrollable grin spreading over his face as the purring grew in intensity. “Did you miss me too? Yes, you did, didn’t you? Aw, Blue-" 

“ _Lance_ , Blue is a sentient robot _cat_ , not a dog,” Keith interrupted, his face appearing to Lance’s left.

Lance turned to glare at him, pointing one of his fingers at the feed. “I’ll have you know that Blue _enjoys_ this, Mullet. Where’s your welcome back party?”

“I have no need for one,” Keith said with a haughty air, turning back to his controls. “Red and I don’t have any need for spoken words." 

Lance narrowed his eyes, pretending to have not seen the corner of Keith’s smile in the feed. He bent over the controls, feeling the familiarity of each button and lever returning to him. Flying was so easy now.

“Ready, Kogane?”

“I’m waiting on _you_ , McClain.”

Lance felt his smile grow as he grabbed onto the levers by his side. “Then let’s go!”

As one, the red and blue lions ripped from their hangars, shooting up into the sky like two colored rockets. From the ground, Lance just barely had time to spot three fighter spacecrafts taking off as well before Blue threw herself into a spin.

Lance whooped, loud, and was vaguely aware of Keith yelling with the same excitement and fervor that Lance was feeling. Blue and Red spiralled up into the atmosphere, weaving and dodging around each other as they flew as fast as they could, spinning and diving with the playfulness Lance would expect from a kitten.

Red pulled up, and Blue followed her lead, chasing the other lion into the sky. It wasn’t long before they broke through the clouds and started to ascend. Immediately, Lance felt the cockpit begin to cool as they left the warmth of the planet’s atmosphere, though it was quickly replaced by artificially produced warmth from Blue’s exteriors.

There was a low beep as Shiro’s face appeared alongside Keith’s face on Lance’s screen, a concerned frown on his face. “Okay, you two. Enough playing. You have a mission to get to, and those poor pilots don’t know how to follow.”

“Yes, _Dad_ ,” Lance muttered, righting Blue. He tapped a few commands into the console, promptly pulling up the directions that would lead him to Xilok. “We’ll be there in no time, especially after Pidge added those thrusters to the ships at the Garrison. The pilots _should_ have no trouble following us.”

Shiro nodded. “Contact when you get there. I’ve got to go.”

“Don’t worry about us, Shiro,” Keith said. “I’ll take care of Lance.”

“More like _I’ll_ take care of _you_!”

Shiro chuckled and ended the call, severing contact with the planet. Lance caught a look behind him of Earth disappearing into the distance, growing smaller and smaller until it was invisible within a few seconds.

“You ready over there, Keith?”

“Always.”


	2. Dangerous Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dangerous Nights - Thirty Seconds to Mars

Xilok was silent when they arrived.

“I don’t like this,” Keith muttered, looking around. He, Lance, and their three pilots had landed their ships and were waiting around what should have been the main control center. At least, it had been the last time they’d visited. As of now, however, the old building, made from the Xilok equivalent of wood, was abandoned, falling apart in some places. It looked as though a single breeze would knock down the entire structure. 

Lance looked around, one hand positioned to shoot at any sign of danger. “Same here. We _saved_ Xilok, didn’t we? Where'd everyone go?”

Keith shook his head. “I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting a welcome committee, but there's something wrong. I say we approach- _carefully._ ”

Lance hesitated slightly, looking around once more. It was too quiet on the usually festive planet. There were no caravans or tents selling snacks alongside the roads, and there were no children running around the pathways. Even from fifty feet in the air, Lance could see the way dust seemed to coat every surface and how the building was suffering badly from wear and erosion.

Maybe they had just moved headquarters.

“Fine,” Lance agreed, “but if this is a trap just know that I warned you.”

“You never warned me,” Keith muttered, but he exited his lion all the same. 

The pilots remained in their ships as Keith and Lance stepped out onto the planet, removing their helmets once Lance checked that the atmosphere was still breathable. Keith ran a nervous hand through his hair, looking around, and Lance noted how one hand was positioned over his bayard. “This place has been abandoned for a while.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Lance whispered, keeping his voice down as if there was something here to hear him. “Come on, the least we can do is check it out. If they were attacked, we need to at least get a clue, right?”

“Right.”

Ten minutes, two curt conversations, and three scans later, the building was declared empty. By now, the pilots had joined them in the search, and were looking around in complete awe. It was no doubt their first time this far away from Earth, and Lance vaguely remembered feeling the same reverence the first time they’d landed on Arus.

“They’re gone,” Keith said once they’d exited the building. “Lance, contact Shiro. We’re leaving.”

Frown deepening, Lance held up his arm, beginning to tap the commands into the screen that appeared above it. Before his finger could hit the last button, however, the whole planet seemed to shake, causing him to lose his balance. Keith caught his shoulder before he could, steadying him even as his other hand flew to his bayard. There was something moving, and if the movement of the planet was any indicator, it was right beneath them.

“Keith, you felt that?” 

Next to him, Keith’s sword was already drawn, his whole body positioned and prepared for an attack. "Watch o-"

Lance summoned his blaster at the same time that the ground exploded, sending bits of the ground raining around them. He had just enough time to bring up his shield before lasers began to pound against it.

“Protect the pilots,” Lance screamed over the noise, shuffling closer to Keith. Seeming to understand, Keith pressed against him as well, forcing their shields together as an enlarged barrier.

“Don’t shoot yet,” Keith shouted back. “We don’t know who’s attacking us!”

Lance shot him a disbelieving glance. “What? Who in the entire universe would be shooting at us like that? It has to be the Galra!”

The dust was beginning to clear, and through it Lance could see the forms of Galra sentries, marching forward with their blasters aimed at the small group of five huddled on the ground. Lance ran his eyes over the advancing crowd.

“There’s too many,” he hissed, “even if we had all of Voltron on the ground with us. We need to get to our lions. _Now_.”

Keith nodded in agreement, turning slightly to face the pilots. “We’ll give you some cover,” he shouted over the noise. “Get to your ships and get out of here!” 

“Officer Kogane-” 

“That was an order!”

Lance raised a brow as the three pilots scattered, never moving his eyes from off his target as he started to mow down the troops. “Keith Kogane, pulling rank. I never thought I’d see the day.”

To his surprise, Keith didn’t retort, merely snorting in amusement as he shifted in place. He was clearly agitated, hand tightening around the hilt of his sword. With a short ranged weapon, there was nothing he could do to help Lance defend themselves. “There’s a first time for everything, Lance. Look. The shields won’t be able to hold for much longer. We _need_ to get to our lions.”

Lance nodded. “I’m long distance. I’ll give you some cover while you get to Red. Think you can make it?”

“It’s barely a hundred feet.” Keith shifted so that he was on the balls of his feet. “Ready?”

“Always.” Lance bit his lips, glanced down, then back at Keith. The latter was watching him, eyes narrowed and concerned, waiting for his signal. His lips were parted slightly, as if about to speak, but yet he didn’t. Those goddamn beautiful lips that Lance _hated_ so much…

Lance tore his eyes away, forcing himself to face front again. “Run.”

Keith took off, and Lance started to shoot again, barely bothering to aim. With troops as densely compressed like this, it was hard to _miss_. Still, Lance felt overwhelmed the second Keith left, with the seemingly never ending army of sentries still marching closer and closer.

Lance scowled and wished he had Hunk’s bayard, just for a second. A machine gun would really be useful, he mused. Or something that could shoot more than one thing at once. 

“I’m in Red!” Keith shouted through the helmets. “I’m going to start burning them down- there’s too many of them for you to last much longer. Just get to Blue!”

“Ready when you are, Mullet.”

Lance could almost imagine he heard a small, breathy laugh before Red ran past him, shaking the ground and nearly knocking him off balance. The giant lion stopped in front of him, planting her feet into the ground around him in a protective stance. Lance saw her tail beginning to move and made a break for it, sprinting for Blue.

The lion had already sensed him coming, and had ran forward the instance he had. She lowered her head, allowing him to clamber inside and into the cockpit.

“Just like the old days,” Lance muttered, collapsing into the seat and taking up the controls.

It only took a minute to destroy the sentries, the bots being very predictable. Within the next sixty seconds, the sentries had been shot, frozen, burnt, and crushed by their lions. It was too easy. 

Lance decided to voice this opinion, and was met with Keith’s subtle agreement. Both their eyes were still trained on the mass of destroyed sentries, as if expecting something to pop out. 

“Officer Kogane? Captain McClain? Are you two okay?”

“We’re good here,” Lance replied. “Have you all gotten to safety?”

“Roger, sir.”

“Good, because I think we need to go. Blue, set a course back to Earth.” Lance’s eyes narrowed, and he leaned over the controls. Underneath him and around him, Blue rumbled, purring anxiously in his mind. Lance followed her train of thought, eyes drifting towards the horizon. “What is it, Blue? Zoom in a little so I can see better…”

Distantly, he heard Keith telling Red to do the same thing. “Where you are looking, Lance?”

“Two o’clock. Something’s coming this way, and it’s distinctly Galra shaped.”

Keith cursed softly. “ _Haggar_.”

“Haggar, as in the old witch Allura destroyed?”

“Do we know any other Haggar?” Keith sighed, and through their open call Lance could see him rubbing his eyes. “I guess Allura really _didn’t_ kill her.”

Lance frowned. “But how do you know it’s her? I can’t even see-”

“That thing coming our way? That thing is loaded with evil quintessence. I can feel it. I-It’s like that room that I found, just full of tainted quintessence…”

Lance’s frown grew, but he only turned to examine the oncoming… _thing_. It was hard to make out what it was at this distance, but Lance thought it was safe to assume that it was loaded and dangerous. Keith was right, though. Whatever it was, it was radiating with evil quintessence.

“I have an idea,” he said faintly. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“And lead her to Earth?”

“Think about it, Keith. She already knows we’re from Earth, so she would have already attacked if she could. Haggar must need us _here_ for something, so I think we should _at the very least_ get off this planet. Besides,” Lance added, almost as an afterthought. “Earth’s more than capable of defending off a few measly Galra ships.”

Keith frowned, apparently ready to protest. Lance scowled at his hesitation, flicking at a few of the controls and preparing to take flight. “We can shoot from the sky, Keith. And from there we’ll have a vantage point.”

Sighing heavily, Keith conceded, and the lions took off into the air, followed quickly by the three fighter pilots. Within an instant, the five ships had left the ground behind them and were now hovering in the air, nearly a thousand feet above ground.

Keith whistled through his teeth, chewing on his lip. “That does _not_ look good.”

Lance had no choice but to mutter an agreement, looking over the large army approaching below them. Even from this distance, he could see the mobs of thousands of Galran soldiers and their fighter jets above them, advancing towards them at concerning speeds.

“Officer, what should we do?” one of the pilots asked, worry tainting his voice.

“Stand by for now,” Keith murmured. “Do not shoot until I tell you to. I don’t want to start a war with the Ga-”

Before he could finish his sentence, the air around them simmered, and Lance instinctively pulled back on the levers, yanking Blue away from whatever was approaching. Alarms were going off in his head, jarring enough to almost make him think that they were real. During the wild spin that followed, he could see Red doing the same thing, flipping in her urgency to _get the hell out_.

The paladins had their instincts and experience to save them.

Lance turned in his seat as Blue steadied herself, eyes widening at the sight around them. Seemingly out of nowhere, a Galra _battlecruiser_ had just materialized before them, just barely a few hundred feet away. He could hear Keith shouting, screaming for the pilots to get away from the ship before it was too late-

A bright purple beam shot out from the ship, impaling each of the ships instantly. Lance cried out as the planes exploded, bright red and yellow against the purple sky, and then gone.

“Lance! We’ve got to get out of here!”

“I’m not leaving until I take this cruiser down,” Lance snapped. “As you said, there’s no use in bringing them back to Earth.”

He pushed Blue forward, streaking across the sky at a speed to give Red and run for his money. He didn’t even have to make an effort to dodge the lasers being shot through the air, Blue doing the heavy lifting as he planned. 

“The army down there was a distraction,” Lance hissed through gritted teeth as Blue’s jawblade formed. “A ploy. The real threat was above us the whole time. And now those pilots are gone. You were right, Keith. We never should have taken off.” 

“This isn’t your fault,” Keith said with a grunt, shooting at the ship and taking out a few of the cannons trained on them. “If we’d stayed on the ground, all five of us would have been destroyed.”

“But-”

“You can blame yourself later when I’m not distracted. On your left!”

Lance pulled Blue around even as her tail moved to shoot, destroying the blasters even before they could begin to power up. “Thanks, Keith. Don’t you find it worrying that they haven’t made a real effort in taking us down yet? Doesn’t that mean…”

“They want us alive,” Keith said bitterly. “But they’re not afraid to shoot down the ones they don’t want.”

Lance shuddered, the memory of the pilots bursting into flames replaying in his mind. He shook his head furiously, shaking himself out of his thoughts. He’d seen it all before. This wasn’t anything new. He’d been to war before…

He snarled, pushing Blue forward and crashing through the next line of fighters with fierce aggression. Lance was only 21, but he’d already been to the edges of the universe, risked his life too many times to count, been fatally injured dozens of times, and had even died twice before Altean medicine came to save the day. His family had sobbed and sobbed when they’d returned to Earth, hardly recognizing the serious, war hardened look in Lance’s eyes. It had broken what was left of his heart. 

“Lance!”

Blue swerved before Lance himself could react, and he barely saw a black flash of movement before something slammed into Blue, pushing her forward.

Lance grunted, bracing himself against his seat as Blue caught her balance, slowing before glancing back. There was something trailing from the battle cruiser, falling to the ground after missing its target. Lance leaned forward, watching as something looking like a net fell through the sky.

Had they been trying to catch them in it?

Laughing lightly to calm his nerves, Lance turned to wink at the other man on his screen. “Thanks, Keith. And Red.”

Keith nodded and set his jaw, his goal obviously still not met. Without a word, he broke away and started his attack on the ship again, jaw blade cutting through metal and fire burning parts of the ship until it exploded. Lance found himself staring at Keith's image on his screen a little longer than he should have, a little awed by the amount of effort Keith was capable of putting into battle, and how pretty he looked with his brows knitted together and mouth pulled into a small frown. 

He shook himself out of his reverie and pushed Blue into battle as well. 

They seemed to be doing well. While the lions couldn't damage the ship enough to take it down completely, they were making good progress taking down it's weaponry. The army of fighter jets was getting closer by the second.

"We should get out of here," Lance said nervously. "The cruiser's too damaged to follow us, and we can easily take down those jets on the way back to Earth. I'd rather take on that army instead of an army and a cruiser with those...  _nets_."

Keith nodded again. "I don't know what those nets were, but I'd rather not found out. Let's go."

The lions turned and flew away from the cruiser, making their get away before the legion of fighter jets could catch up to them. Lance didn't like leaving a cruiser behind while it was still functional, especially if it could potentially restock and come after them, but they didn't really have much of a choice. It was, in a way, a matter of life or death.

"La-"

Lance heard another growl, this one louder and closer to a roar, cutting off Keith's shout. Blue pulled into a climb as he instinctively pulled back on his controls, and the alarms were back, slamming against his brain and setting his heart into a pounding panic. Closing his eyes, Lance reached out to his lion, feeling the swirl of emotions around him as he tried to locate the problem.

Blue glanced back, sending an image to Lance. Something had attempted another attack on them, but it wasn’t a cruiser or even a smaller fighter ship like he’d been expecting.

The sheer force of surprise, anger, and fear resonating around Blue’s mind caused Lance’s eyes to fly open, but he was already feeling the same way. He turned his lion around, but didn’t even need to command her before she was diving towards the Red Lion, who was still struggling in a net, only serving to entangle himself even more.

“Hold him still!” Lance shouted. “He’s only making it worse!” 

Shouting through clenched teeth, Keith struggled with his controls, and his lion jerked backwards, causing the net to catch around her head. The lion roared in frustration, and there was a distant _whoosh_ as the lion shot fire from his mouth. Lance and Blue dodged as the fire shot past them.

“Is it doing anything?”

“Can’t tell!”

The fire died out a few seconds later, and Lance shook his head in dismay when he saw the net still in tact and without a single patch to show for its treatment. Keith growled, hands still on the controls, not knowing what to do.

“Hold ‘em still, Keith. I-” 

“Behind you, Lance!” 

Blue dodged again, narrowly missing a laser that just grazed Red’s back, causing the lion to jerk even more. She was being pulled, slowly but surely, towards the battleship, and Lance knew it was only a matter of time before it would be too late.

“Keith, you’re getting pulled in!”

“I _know!_ ”

Lance turned to face the new enemy, dread sinking into his stomach as he found himself facing a legion of fighter jets, all armed and seemingly waiting for a signal. They were getting too close for comfort, and Lance judged that he only had a few minutes before they arrived.

“Lance, you need to get out of here!”

“I’m not leaving without you, Keith. I told Shiro I was bringing you back, and I will.” Lance tightened his hands around his controls as Blue growled in agreement.

Keith frowned. “We can’t lose two lions, Lance. You need to get back to Earth, _safely_ , and contact the others. Red just tangled herself up in the net. There’s no way you’ll cut us out in time.”

“Not with _that_ attitude! Come on-”

“ _There’s no time_. Even if we managed, there will always be another waiting to capture us both. I’m surprised they haven’t attempted it already. We may be paladins, Lance, but we’re not invincible. Especially not facing that many ships.”

“I’ll shoot them down. Buy you some time.”

“ _Lance, get out of here!_ ”

Lance shook his head, teeth clenched together, and flew forward, jaw blade forming immediately. To his surprise, and dismay, however, the normally sharp blade merely bounced off the material of the net, sending both him and Blue spiralling away.

“Lance, the net’s not going to break. You can’t cut it, and I can’t burn it. Lance, _please_. Get out of here before they capture _two_ paladins and their lions.”

“Keith-”

“Look, McClain. I didn’t keep you alive all these years just to have you die here.”

“And _I_ didn’t come all this way, pining my ass off, to watch my _crush_ get kidnapped by the Galra!”

Keith closed his eyes, scoffing around a disbelieving smile, and Lance suddenly noticed how he had sat back, hands no longer on the controls. “Lance, don’t make this harder on me. I know you’re smarter than this. You _know_ you have to go. Before they get us both.”

“Keith, shut _up!_ ” Lance rightened Blue again, eyes darting between the struggling Red Lion and the incoming ships. “Please, just try getting out. One more time. Before it’s too late…”

The Red Paladin opened his eyes, locking in on Lance’s pleading ones through the comms. “Hey, Lance? I lov-" 

The net lit up, purple light sparking and crackling as it ran up the length of the cords, closer and closer to the Red Lion. Lance followed it with his eyes, crying out in shock and warning when it was almost too late.

And then Keith was screaming, Red was roaring, lights flashing and blinking and eventually darkening as she lost power. Lance felt himself screaming too, but he couldn’t hear himself. The only sound was Keith’s pained shouting and then the silence that followed as the Red Lion began to plummet towards the planet below them.

Lance pushed Blue towards the fallen lion, but to his surprised, she resisted, pushing back against him no matter how hard he leaned upon the controls. With a low growl, she turned around, flying away from Red and his pilot.

“Blue!” he shouted, yanking on the levers to no avail. “Go back! We have to go back and help them. Blue, please. That’s _Red_ back there, and _Keith_. Please don’t do this…”

Blue purred, low, dangerous, but comforting all the same. Her thoughts swam around his brain, portraying the same dismay, anger, and guilt that he was feeling, but yet she still flew away. Lance, for the first time in ages, felt tears welling up behind his eyes as he looked back once, watching as the Red Lion was pulled towards the cruiser, her occupant silent.

Lance felt something in his gut, the slow curdling of a strong emotion he hadn’t felt since the last time he'd seen someone on the team injured. It boiled, its red hot heat spreading to the rest of his body as he stretched his fingers, the appendages jumping with excitement.

“They won’t follow us to Earth,” he muttered. He was burning up. “They’re not going to hurt anyone else, are they?”

Blue growled in agreement, and Lance bent over the controls.

“Then let’s end this.” 

_____

Lance had told many lies in his life. Some of them had been white lies, and some had been little tricks played on siblings or friends that he would sorely regret in the future. Sometimes, he lied to get out of trouble or to protect his friends, though his habit of falling back upon lies instead of accepting his demise slowly dwindled out over the years. He was maturing.

He had lied to Hunk plenty of times. As childhood friends, there was only so long that Lance could go without telling a little lie here and there. They were all good ones, of course. No, he wasn’t busy so he could sneak out to comfort him after his grandmother died. No, he didn’t know what today was even though he had a whole surprise party planned out with the family. Yes, he did know the homework just give me a second and let me ask someone else. Yes, of course he was okay you don’t need to stay up to talk to him just go to sleep.

Lance had even lied to Pidge in the few months that they knew each other before Voltron happened. Lying to get her out of trouble or to catch her up with school or to boost her confidence and hopefully convince her to skip school (it never worked). Lying was too easy when Pidge was distracted with her work.

Heck, Lance had lied to Keith plenty of times as well. No, he wasn’t busy tomorrow so let’s meet and buy some drinks. No, he had no idea when his birthday was as he struggled to hang up a balloon in his apartment with one hand. No, he didn’t get him a Christmas present. Yes, of course he was 100 percent into girls.

Despite all of his lies, however, Lance had never, _ever,_ lied to his hero, Takashi Shirogane.

Well, first thing for everything, right?

“What’s going on over there, Lance?” Shiro shouted through the coms. The man was running down a hall, panting lightly, and a quick glance told Lance that he was still at the Garrison. “What’s all that noise? Where’s Keith?”

Lance breathed out slowly, dangerously calm for someone currently facing odds of over a thousand to one, taking down a few fighters before turning to the next opponent. Blue was a little battered in some places, not being able to dodge every blast shot their way, but they were doing surprisingly well. Their shared rage and fear combined together seemed to have made something terrifying.

With most of his attention focused on the attack, Lance began to explain.

“We landed on Xilok a while ago, but the base was abandoned.” He yanked hard on the controls, bringing Blue up before she could get hit. His arms were starting to ache. “We took a look around, but the building was empty, so we headed back to the lions.” With a few deft taps of his fingers, he froze the majority of the planes headed his way, giving him time to get out of the way. “A bunch of sentries popped out of nowhere, so we covered each other and got back to the lions.”

“Galra sentries?”

Lance nodded, rolling Blue out of the way, never ceasing his firing as he did so. “It was the Galra again. Once we got back to the lions, it was easy to destroy them, but there was this… army of sorts coming our way. I told everyone to take off and get off the ground so we would get a vantage point…”

By this time, Shiro was outside, and somehow Black had ended up outside the Garrison. Lance just barely saw a crowd of people seeing him off before he returned his attention to the battle around him. “The battleship had some kind of cloaking device,” he said once Shiro had settled in Black. “We didn’t see it until it revealed itself to us. Until it was too late.”

Shiro was flying, and Lance could sense him even from this distance away, flying fast and hard towards where he was still fighting. “What happened then, Lance?”

Both of them were too calm. Too used to disasters happening. How long would Shiro stay calm? How long would Lance last?

“They killed the pilots first,” Lance said flatly. “They shot their ion cannon. Keith and I got out of the way, but they were too slow.” 

Shiro breathed out through his teeth, but didn’t reply.

“We decided to take down the ship, because we didn’t want any of them following us back to Earth. That lasted for a while. We did plenty of damage on the ship.”

“But?”

“The ship’s the newest edition,” Lance said dryly. He charged at a ship, grabbing a wing in Blue’s jaws and swinging it around, letting go just in time for it to collide with another, their momentum slamming them against the main ship. Lance remembered the first time he’d seen that move… by Keith.

Lance sighed heavily, looking around. There were still hundreds of fighters left. Every muscle in his body ached from pulling on the controls and preparing for impacts and just trying to keep himself in his seat. His head was pounding, either from concentrating for too long or because of the way he was constantly thrown around in his seat by their sometimes reckless flying.

Reckless. Just like Keith.

“They had these… nets. Blue almost got caught by one, but Red shoved us away just in time. We kept fighting, but then Red got caught in one. She kept struggling and just tangled herself up in it even more. I tried to cut through it, but my blade just bounced off…”

“Where’s Keith right now?” Shiro was getting closer and closer, making it easier for Lance to sense both him and the other lion. He could feel multiple onslaughts of concern, growing quickly into panic and fear when Lance didn’t reply right away. “Lance, where’s Keith?”

Lance glanced behind him. He still couldn’t sense Keith or Red. The coms and their minds had been silent for too long, and it was concerning. Did Shiro deserve the same stress? Of course he didn’t… the poor man had enough on his plate.

And that’s when Lance lied.

“When the net caught them…” he took a deep breath and took out a few more fighters. Both Blue and himself were starting to tire, and they were getting hit more and more often. He groaned when a laser slammed into their hull, sending them into a tight spiral. “K-Keith and Red just went silent. It was like the net turned them off. Red shut down and stopped flying, and the net dragged them back in. I don’t know what happened, and I can’t see them anymore, and-” 

“Lance, take a few breaths. You-”

“How can I take a few breaths when Keith told me to get back to Earth, but I’m getting destroyed by this brigade? How can I calm down when I don’t know where he is?” Lance sucked in a breath, almost lazily shooting down a few more jets. If they took a few more hits, he wasn’t sure if they’d be able to take it. There were already spots dancing around his vision, and he had no doubt Blue felt the same way. “Shiro, I’m about to _die_ out here.”

Shiro shook his head, but Lance couldn’t see the motion through the call. “Lance, you’re not going to die. Do you remember what you said during our last battle, when we all thought we were going to be destroyed? We were fighting off an army with three lions, after Pidge and Keith were taken out. We were all tired and injured, but do you remember what you told us?”

Lance didn’t reply. He could barely even hear Shiro anymore. Something hit them again, shuddering the whole lion. His head hit the back of his chair, causing his vision to go black for a few seconds. Lance tried to freeze whoever had shot them, but his movements were too sluggish to actually hit a target.

“You urged us to keep fighting. You told us to keep fighting for the people we loved, the planets we saved, and the aliens were protected. You told us to smile in the face of the odds and to laugh at the doorway to death and turn right back around. You told us to keep laughing, to keep talking, and to keep fighting. You told us that heroes don’t give up because no one remembers them if they don’t.” Shiro laughed lightly, sounding far away. “Remember, Lance?

“You came back from the dead twice. You faced unbreakable odds and won. You found solutions in the most dire situations. I know things look bad right now, Lance, but we need to finish this. Please, just hold out until I get there, and we take these guys out together. Like the old days.”

Lance felt tears prick his eyes, and he closed them, leaning back. He just wanted to sleep, but he could remember the times where he had fought battalions of Galra soldiers on almost no sleep, struggling to stay awake and merely surfing on waves of adrenaline. He’d seen it all before, and he’d see it all again.

Because Shiro was right. Things were bad, but if there was anything Lance prided himself with, it was the fact that he could always make things right.

“Like the old days,” he muttered, opening his eyes. His head swam and his eyes felt like they were falling out of his head, but he just barely managed to grab his controls again, feeling the familiar grip in his hands. “Just part of the job of being a paladin. What’s your ETA?” 

“Give me three minutes.” 

“Three minutes,” Lance repeated, leaning over the controls again. A million miles away but right next to him in spirit, Shiro watched as a dangerous smirk came over the younger man’s face, changing him into the terrifying fighter that hid behind Lance’s friendly facade. “Take your time, Shiro. I’ll hold out until then.”

By the time Shiro arrived, Blue was in bad shape, but still functioning. Even as he approached, the Blue Lion roared, shooting ice and beams of light at frightening speeds, effectively destroying a line of fighters approaching her.

Still, she was getting surrounding and coaxed closer and closer to the battleship, which had been too badly damaged to attack from a distance.

Shiro cut through the lines with ease, channeling focus and determination into his bond with his lion. They all knew that each of the paladins bonded with their lions in different ways. Shiro used calming methods and emotions such as tranquility and concentration. Keith and Red fueled each other on pure rage and fiery power. Hunk used his protective nature and confident determination to urge his lion to be quicker and stronger. Pidge seemed to use common sense more than anything, but even her smaller body could channel terrifying amounts of anger and confidence into their bond.

Lance seemed to be a different story. His moods were constantly flickering, varying from flirtatious and confident to withdrawn on some of his worse days. Blue seemed to be a constant force in their connection, however, constantly bringing out the best of both of them. Whatever was happening, Shiro noticed, it made their bond stronger quicker than the rest of the paladins.

The way they fought was enough evidence for that. 

“How are you holding up?” Shiro called.

Lance laughed lightly, a touch of hysteria decorating the tone. “I was protecting _you_ , old man.” 

If Shiro was bothered by the comment, and he really wasn’t, he didn’t mention it, merely throwing himself into the fight with a vigor no one had seen from him in over a year. Lance caught himself watching him fight more than once, awed by the way the Black Lion soared through the air with a dangerous elegance, almost seeming to blend in at times with the darkening sky, a mere flash of white.

More than once, Lance had to shake his head and force himself back into the battle.

It didn’t take long working together, and soon the brigade of fighter jets had been demolished and sent tumbling through the atmosphere to their destruction on the ground. For a few moments, Blue hovered in the air, looking around. The cruiser was nowhere to be seen.

“Where did it go?” Shiro wondered, looking around as well. “The ship was here just a few minutes ago, or at least that’s what I thought. I saw it when I first arrived. Lance, you said it had some cloaking ability?”

Lance nodded. “We didn’t see it until it revealed itself to us. That’s for certain…”

“Is it possible that it’s still watching us now?”

“Not likely. I don’t think it would risk going up against two lions, especially if one of them is the Black Lion…”

Shiro nodded. “Fine. Let’s head back to Earth.”

Lance blinked and sat up straight in his seat, shaking his head to clear the fog and exhaustion from it. “Go back to Earth? Shiro, we need to find that ship and get Keith! He’s still on that thing, and we don’t know what the hell they’re going to do to him!”

“I really want to, Lance, but we can’t. We don't know where the ship is. We don’t know how to find it or how to take it down if it disappears again. All _I_ know is that there’s a high possibility of that ship getting back to Earth to attack while we’re not there. I don’t want to lose anybody else.”

“Keith isn’t lost-”

“I know he’s not.” Shiro sighed, rubbing his hand over his face as if doing so could make the bags under his eyes disappear. “I want to go out and find him ASAP, but we can’t do it without the other paladins. Let’s go back to Earth, Lance, and make sure the planet is safe. Once we know it is, we can leave with Pidge and Hunk and track down this ship. Got it?”

Lance nodded sullenly, slouching in his seat. He was _exhausted_ , both mentally and physically. But he couldn’t give up now.

Earth was in danger.


	3. Habits

Matt had a lot of friends at the Garrison, and even more colleagues. Over his time as a scientist, pilot, and researcher at the prestigious school, he’d gained a huge reputation as Takashi Shirogane’s best friend and as quite possibly one of the smartest people to ever grace the school’s grounds. While that reputation had been challenged by his sister’s arrival at the school, he was glad to see that people still respected him.

That also meant that he visited the Garrison often, either for friends or for work. As an astrobiologist, he still accompanied trips out into space for research purposes, something made easier by the innovations of himself and his sister.

His frequent visits also meant that he saw a lot of things.

Matt had been walking down to greet a few pilots back from a mission when the Black and Blue lions appeared in the air, streaking towards the Garrison with unbelievable speed. He had laughed and waved, thinking that they were going on a training run, when he realized a few things. 

First, Shiro and Lance rarely went on flights with only them together. If they did, Keith was always with them. 

Second, Blue seemed to be barely keeping herself afloat, and it took a few nudges from the Black Lion to reorient herself.

Third, they were going too fast.

Fourth, Blue was covered with blaster marks, clearly injured.

Matt realized all of this just as Blue dipped in the air, wavering dangerously as Black shot forward and dug her claws into the sides, keeping her in the air. Blue sagged immediately, lights going out, and the lions started a much quicker descent towards Earth.

“Get inside,” Matt snapped at the pilots, who had been watching the whole thing without a word, “and go find Iverson.”

The pilots scattered and were gone in an instant.

Blue was placed carefully a few hundred feet from Matt, and he immediately ran forward as Black landed besides the other with care. The large head lowered and Matt saw Shiro sprint out from the jaw of the lion. A surge of relief nearly made Matt stumble. Shiro was safe.

But Lance?

Shiro made a beeline to the Blue lion, who opened her mouth without complaint. The older man slipped into the lion just as Matt ran up, panting.

“Takashi! What happened?”

There was an audible grunt from inside the lion, and Matt allowed himself to venture inside, looking around. Parts of the lion were sparking, burnt out and dangerously close to falling apart. Matt touched part of the wall in wonder, his normally scientific mind taking over. No matter how much he worked with Altean machines, they still awed him to no end.

“Lance, are you okay? Can you walk?”

“‘M fine, Shiro,” the other replied, sounding groggy. “Blue got the worst of it, didn’t you, Blue?”

Blue purred in response, vibrating slightly and catching Matt off guard. He managed to steady himself as Shiro appeared from around the corner, supporting a stumbling Lance. Matt ran forward to take Lance’s other arm, wrapping him around his shoulders. “What happened?”

“Diplomatic mission gone wrong,” Shiro said with a grim face. There was something tight around his eyes and mouth that radiated anxiety and anger. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Diplo- Where’s Keith?”

Shiro’s face tightened sharply, something about his adoptive brother causing a dark shadow to pass over his face. “Later, Matt. Come on, help me get Lance to Iverson.”

“Is he okay? Lance, are you okay? You look like a mess.”

Lance waved a hand, smiling sweetly. “I’m fine, Matt. Just a little banged up. Nothing too serious.”

“You can barely walk.”

“I might have a mild concussion.”

Matt sighed and smiled at Shiro, who was still staring straight ahead. The smile on Matt’s face quickly faded as he saw the tense line in Shiro’s jaw and the strained lines around his eyes and mouth. Whatever had happened out there, it hadn’t been good.

Where was Keith?

They arrived in Iverson’s office a few minutes later, and Lance pushed himself away from the others, swaying slightly but keeping on his feet. His eyes were glazed in exhaustion, and it looked like he was about to collapse, but it was better than nothing.

“Enter!”

Shiro pushed the door open, leading the group inside, with Matt trailing in behind them cautiously. He wasn’t sure if he was allowed to be inside, but he carried Lance back, so that counted for something, right?

“Captain McClain,” Iverson said, looking up from his desk. “I wasn’t expected you back so early. Where is Officer Kogane?”

Lance bit his lip, his normally confident facade cracking slightly. “He… The message was a ruse, just as we suspected, sir. There was a trap waiting for us when we got to Xilok.”

Iverson narrowed his eye. “That doesn’t answer my question, McClain.”

Immediately, Lance’s eyes fell to the floor. “Officer Kogane was captured by the Galra. I’m sorry, Commander.”

The large man behind the desk stood, towering over everyone in the room easily. His single eye was narrowed in anger and suspicion, portraying more disappointment than one eye should have been able to. “Sorry that you didn’t answer my question, or sorry that you failed the mission?”

“Both, sir.”

Matt, standing next to Shiro, could feel the tense anger radiating off his form in waves. Carefully, making sure Iverson couldn’t see, Matt gave Shiro a light nudge, breaking him out of his trance. Shiro turned to look at the shorter man next to him, eyes blazing with anger and annoyance, and for a second, Matt thought that perhaps he should have left the man alone.

But then the frustration faded away until it was only visible in the lines in Shiro’s forehead, and the black and white haired man gave Matt a strained, but genuine, smile before turning back to Iverson.

“-a soldier, McClain! When Kogane told me that he would need no other pilots besides you, I expected results, not a failed mission. Do you realize that the only reason that you’re standing here right now is because-”

“With all due respect, Commander Iverson,” Shiro snapped, “Lance is the best pilot at the Garrison, in par with myself and Keith. The reason Lance is here right now is because he earned it through hard work. A failed mission is nothing for him to be punished for. He fought off an entire battalion of Galra jets and one of their cruisers by himself and made it out alive, something I remember that none of your own battalions, consisting of the top thousand of your ‘best’ pilots, could do.”

“Then tell me why he failed to save Kogane.”

“Perhaps if you have ever been to a real war, you would understand.” Shiro bowed his head slightly before resting his hand on Lance’s shoulder. “If you would excuse us, Commander, Lance has a concussion from the battle, and I need to get him to the Castle before it has any lasting damage.”

At this point, Lance shook himself out of his trance, shrugging Shiro’s hand off of his shoulder. “No, not yet. We need to go back out there and get Keith. The Galra have the Red Lion and the Red Paladin. We can’t just let them go.”

“I will hold a meeting tonight,” Iverson said stiffly. “I will be sending my pilots out to bring him back.”

“I need to go,” Lance replied quickly. “And so does Shiro.”

Iverson’s eye seemed to narrow even further, glaring at the young pilot before him. “I will have no such thing. You and Commander Shirogane have close and personal ties with Kogane that will only get in the way of the mission. I will call in the rest of the paladins instead.”

“Oh, so you think the rest of the paladins don’t have a close and personal tie with Keith? We’re part of Voltron! We’ve been inside each other’s heads! If you even think for one second-”

Shiro’s hand returned to Lance’s shoulder, his face taut with worry. Matt had the urge to return his own encouraging hand to Shiro’s arm, but refrained. It would only distract the man and catch Iverson’s attention.

“That’s enough, Lance,” Shiro whispered. “Let’s go back to the Castle.”

“You can’t leave Keith’s fate to the hands of these incompetent-”

“The pilots at the Garrison are far from incompetent, and they will have Pidge and Hunk with them. Come, Lance. Your concussion will only get worse, and we need to fix Blue up.”

Lance glared at Shiro, his normally warm, friendly blue eyes turned to ice with rage. “None of the pilots here will survive,” he hissed, though his words seemed more directed to Iverson than to Shiro. “The reason that Voltron was so successful was because of the friendship between us and our respect for our leader. None of that exists here at the Garrison. And for good reason.”

Taking a deep breath, Lance ripped his shoulder away from Shiro again, turning his cold glare onto Iverson instead. “I hope you’re happy when your pilots are all killed,” he snapped. “I hope you’re glad when Pidge and Hunk are injured trying to protect their sorry asses. I hope you’re happy when you fail save Keith-”

He stopped, seeming to choke on his words, before he turned on his heel and marched out, only stumbling slightly. Matt glanced at Shiro before rushing out the door behind him, only barely catching a glimpse of Shiro turning to face Iverson again.

Matt found Lance sitting against the wall a hundred feet down from the door, knees brought up to his chest and head bowed down. He was shaking when Matt approached, though whatever sobs must have been there were silent.

“We’re going to get Keith back,” Matt muttered, sitting down against the wall besides him. “I know it. Shiro isn’t one to turn his back on his little brother. We just need to find the right time.”

“How can we do that? We don’t even have Voltron anymore. We don’t have our best pilot. If Pidge and Hunk go off with the Garrison pilots, it’ll only be me and Shiro left, and I’m not good enough to save him-”

Matt pulled Lance into a hug, cutting him off as he choked on a sob. During the war, they had all found different ways on how to comfort each other. It was found that for Lance, it was most often helpful to just hold him as he cried and only talk to him when he was done. It was a delicate process, Matt thought, especially somewhere like this.

A door opened at the end of the hall, and Matt looked up just in time to see Shiro appear outside of Iverson’s office, just barely refraining from slamming the door. The older man rubbed a tired hand over his face before he looked up, catching Matt’s eye from across the hall.

A small smile graced Shiro’s face as he came over and sat down as well, wrapping his arm around Lance’s shoulders. “We’re going to get him back, okay?” he asked, his thumb rubbing soothing circles into the younger man’s arm. “I won’t let the Garrison use Pidge and Hunk. Not when the paladins are going into space with them.”

“Are we?”

“Of course we are.” Shiro leaned in with a smile. “But Iverson doesn’t have to know.”

_____

“So you’re saying-”

“Keith was captured, yes.”

“By the Galra.”

“Yes.”

“The aliens that we got rid of. Years ago.”

“Yes.”

“And you suspect Haggar, the witch that-”

“-we thought we killed, yes.” Shiro sighed and rubbed his flesh arm with the metal one, looking away from the group to look at Allura. “I’m sorry, Princess. It seems like Haggar is back and seeking revenge.”

The Altean woman smiled, though the corners of it were too strained. “That’s nothing for you to be sorry about, Shiro. For now, we just have to focus on getting rid of her for good.”

“How do we do that?” Hunk asked. “We don’t have the Blades of Marmora anymore, and without Keith, I don’t think they’ll want to help us again.”

“The Blades don’t need Keith to help us,” Pidge countered. “Their focus is to get rid of evil Galras, and they’re not going to pass up an alliance with Voltron just because we… don’t currently have one of our paladins.”

“Pidge is right,” Allura said. “I will get in contact with Kolivan immediately, and inform him of everything that has happened. In the meantime, will someone take a walk to the medical bay? Lance had only minor injuries, so he will be coming out soon.”

Hunk jumped up immediately. “I’ll go. I haven’t seen my best friend in months.”

“Hold on just a moment, Hunk,” Shiro interrupted. “I… want to discuss something. It’s about Lance.”

“Is he okay?” Coran asked, the Earth-like expression falling off his lip as easily as Altean did. “In good health?”

“That’s actually what I wanted to ask the rest of you,” Shiro said sheepishly. “When he called… he was facing extreme odds. A whole battalion by himself and Keith was already gone and his lion was battered… he was ready to just give up.”

“Give up?” Pidge asked, interested piqued. “Lance never gives up. He never does that. That’s not how Lance rolls. What do you mean give up?”

Shiro sighed. “Give up as in stop fighting. He was about to just… stop. He was on the verge of unconsciousness, and I saw that, but this is Lance, right? The one that never stops fighting no matter what gets in his way? I… was just worried about him.”

“That doesn’t sound like Lance,” Hunk said, forehead creasing. “I’ll talk to him and keep you updated. I’m sure it’s just… Keith…”

Pidge nodded sagely before following Hunk out the door. Allura and Coran left the room, muttering something about coordinates, and Shiro correctly assumed that they were leaving to locate the Red Lion. Matt still sat in the chair besides Shiro, watching him carefully with eyes that resembled Pidge in more ways than one.

“Tell me what you’re thinking about, Takashi.”

Shiro didn’t open his mouth immediately, almost purposefully pressing his lips together instead. He didn’t want to talk about himself, especially at a time like this. His little brother was kidnapped by their worst enemy and one of their paladins was in physical (though not for long) and possibly mental pain. He was the leader. He needed to do something.

It had taken Shiro nearly a year as the Black Paladin to realize that being a leader didn’t mean being strong all the time, or being the father or brother figure they saw him as. Sometimes, being a leader meant trusting his fellow paladins to catch him when he fell and to support him the same way he supported them.

“It’s just hard. Losing Keith, I mean.” Shiro sighed and slumped in his chair, a habit he’d picked up after becoming a paladin. “The first time was when he ran away for the first time, and the second was when child services tried to take him back after he picked too many fights. Keith’s a good kid, though I can hardly call him that anymore. He used to be so reckless, and I was always so afraid that I’d lose him and that I’d never see him again…

“When I was picked to go on that Kerberos mission, I almost wanted to decline. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, to go on a trip through space with my best friend and his dad. But that meant leaving Keith behind on Earth, and who knows how much trouble he would get into?” Shiro laughed, rubbing a hand through his hair and knowing fully well that he was rambling, but not caring in the least. Matt’s face showed that he was providing Shiro with his full attention, a welcome feeling.

“I went anyways, partly because Keith convinced me to. I couldn’t pass up something like this. Of course, all that I got from it was… all this,” Shiro said, waving at his metal arm and the scar on his nose. “As cheesy as it sounds, Keith is a part of me. I’ve known him for over a decade now, and he’s probably the one who knows me best, and I know it hurt both of us when I got captured on the mission.”

Shiro fell silent, his hands clasped together and his forehead furrowed in concentration, as if trying to remember the few lost memories that still escaped him. Matt’s hands twitched, wanting to reach out and comfort him, but he refrained. He didn’t want to interrupt.

“I promised myself, and him, that I wouldn’t leave again. When I made it back to Earth, it felt like a miracle. It was hard to get back and be a brother again instead of an anxious, traumatized leader, but it was worth it. Of course, I just had to go and get captured by Zarkon again, hurting him even more…

“But after all these years, it’s been me who’s been leaving. Well, Keith left a few times when he first landed with us, and when he joined the Blades, but I understand that. He was an unloved foster child who didn’t want to stay with us, so I could cut him some slack. But all I’ve ever given him in return are my disappearance and secrets when I found I couldn’t trust him anymore. It… hurt us both.”

Shiro’s hands unclasped and moved up to his face, where they sat for a few moments before falling away, dark eyes shining for a brief moment before he looked away. “I didn’t expect him to be the one to disappear next.”

Sensing the end of Shiro’s tiring rant, Matt stood and came to sit on the sofa besides him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You know none of that’s your fault,” he muttered. “You haven’t been anything but a proud, trusting leader who always knew what to do to help the team. Everyone loves you.”

“I may have been a leader, but it took me a year to realize that I had to be better than that. I had to be their brother. And that mistake cost too much from all of us.”

Matt rubbed Shiro’s arm, and tried to smile. “Not your fault. You didn’t mean for this happen, and you didn’t cause any of this. We’re going to get Keith back.”

“I just hope it won’t be too late.”

_____

Keith didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know how long it had been. He didn’t know how he got there or whether he was supposed to be there or-

What was he doing here?

He stood slowly, looking around. He had been lying in a small bed, furnished with a satisfactory pillow and a thin blanket. Everything was dark. 

The room wasn’t too small, and Keith found that he was able to walk small circles around the room as he pleased. There were no windows, and all the light in the room was provided by the strange purple crystals on the wall that he recognized for some strange reason. Everything was purple.

Well, not everything was purple. He was wearing something hard and uncomfortable- at least it had been when he was still lying. Keith found that he could move around relatively well in the armor (was it armor?). It was white and black, mostly, with strange red markings across his shoulders, chest, and most of his joints. How strange.

There was something important about the red. Something that had to do with the annoying roaring in his head that he felt wasn’t the sound of blood rushing through his head or his own thoughts. 

What was that awful sound?

The door in the wall opened, and Keith whirled around, his hand flying to his side on instinct, fingers curling around… nothing. Confused, he looked down to see his hand curled into a fist, as if expecting to be holding something. Holding what? Why had he been so ready to fight? Why did he feel like he was missing something?

White and red, cutting through the purple masses. 

“Keith,” someone muttered, “I see you’re awake.”

Eyes roaming the field. Something roaring in his head, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was a welcome feeling, giving him the energy to leap back into the fight-

“You put up quite a fight back there. You do know it’s wrong for someone to fight their empress, don’t you?”

“You’re not my-”

Flashes of blue. Blue eyes, blue armor, blue shields, blue blasters. A blue gun and a shield protecting him. A bright smile and a light laugh.

“You will be punished in time, Keith, but for the time being, I have a favor.”

“I would never-”

Why was he fighting? Who was this person? Was it a person? It was hard to see their face-

Lance? Was that his name? Oh, that couldn’t be right… who is this Lance, anyways? Blue… blue… something… Fighting… protecting him… Loving him?

“I need you to relax.”

“No.”

Lions. Was that the roaring? What nonsense. He wasn’t a paladin of Voltron… not yet, anyways.

“That’s it…”

“I’m not-”

Faces were turning away. Where were they going? What were their names? Did it matter, with expressions with such disgust and fear playing across their faces? Were they leaving him? Leaving him… forever?

“Just relax, and forget.”

“I will never-”

Keith could feel them slipping. The few memories that had lay trapped in his mind were falling away like sand through his fingers, faster and faster. Colors and voices and names and faces blurred together, and he struggled to hold on to even one of them.

Lance, too close to his face with his stupid smile… Who?

Something with black and white hair, ruffling his own hair with a friendly smile. Who was he, and why was he being nice? Who had ever been nice to him…?

Yellow armor, catching him as he fell… or had he dropped him? What was happening?

Who was this young girl in green armor, throwing him to the ground?

Who was the beautiful young woman with white hair that turned away from him in disgust, treating him like the dust under her shoes?

Who was the man with the orange hair that ignored him at all the meetings?

What meetings?

Blue armor… there used to be something important about that. But what was so important about some boy from Cuba (how did he know that?) yelling in his face, insulting him, pummeling him into the ground?

Keith’s memories were a mess. Were they memories? A figment of his imagination? Who were these people… 

What people? Was he going insane? He hadn’t been thinking about people. What was going on with him?

Where was he? His room? What had he been doing? Talking…

Keith blinked, looking around. He was kneeling on the ground, hands braced around his head in a death grip that only served to make his headache worse. His eyes caught on something… the edge of a cloak…

He flew to his feet in a single, graceful movement, eyes averted. “I’m sorry, your highness. I don’t know what became of me.”

“All will be forgiven, Keith. I suspect that will be the aftereffects of the armor.”

“The… armor?”

“Yes, the Red Paladin armor.” The cloaked figure pointed a gnarled finger at Keith’s attire, causing him to glance down. “I suspect you heard your lion calling to you. The bond must have worked. The lion has accepted you.”

Keith wanted to tell her that the Red Lion would never trust someone so easily, and that the paladin must earn his trust and respect, but the thought was gone almost as soon as it came.

“That is good news,” Keith said, strangely pleased with himself. “And what of the rest of the lions?”

“They will all come soon, and I know exactly who will be piloting each of them. Come, and let me introduce you. Even if you are the Red Paladin, I want you to lead them.”

Keith bowed low, a small smile gracing his face. “It would be my honor, your highness.”

“Very good.” A small, malicious grin appeared from under the hood as Keith rose, and Haggar waved a hand. “Follow me, Keith.”

_____

The Castle had a greenhouse. Of course, it was much more complex and more similar to a real garden than greenhouses on Earth were. 

When Lance had first found out about the greenhouses, he had hid himself in the large room for hours at a time, walking through the dirt paths with his shoes off, breathing in the scents of Altean fruits and vegetables and herbs and finding that if he closed his eyes and listened carefully for the small waterfall in one corner of the room, he could pretend that he was still in his mother’s garden.

From that day on, that was the place that Lance disappeared to when he was upset. The smells, phantom breeze, and water helped to chase away his demons, and ever since they’d gotten Earth plants after a stroke of luck at the space mall, he felt even more at home.

Therefore, it was no surprise that he made a beeline for the place upon emerging from the pod.

Hunk had followed him at a distance, not wanting to bother his friend but not wanting to leave him alone. They’d known each other since the elementary school days, and Hunk knew there was something bothering Lance more than the loss of Keith. There was something else.

Stepping into the greenhouse was like being transported to a different world. As soon as the door closed and was hidden behind a patch of vines, Hunk could have sworn that he’d been tossed into a planet at random. The sky above them was a bright blue, spotless save for a few clouds and the bright sun. All around him, leaves of all colors swayed in the breeze, vivid and almost shining in the light. 

Hunk began to walk, following the light impressions Lance had left in the dirt path. He had seen the shoes Lance had left by the door, his socks tucked neatly into the insides. 

He almost tripped over the boy a few seconds later, much to his surprise. Lance almost never left the Earth section of the greenhouse, though, Hunk mused, there would be no point in going there at the moment. They were on Earth, so what was there to miss?

Hunk sat down on the path next to Lance, careful not to sit on any of the flourishing plants. Lance was cradling something in his hands, and when he unfolded his fingers, Hunk could crane his neck to look.

“Do you remember,” Lance whispered, “when we found juniberry seeds at the space mall? I remember how we bought it, no questions asked, and planted it here without Allura and Coran knowing.” He laughed hoarsely. “They were so happy when they found out. Allura cried, and I think Coran did too.”

Hunk didn’t reply, keeping silent.

“It made me wonder,” Lance continued, holding the flower up to the light. “Would there be a time when I cried because I missed something so much? But as soon as I said that, I knew. Of course. I cried almost every night for the first few months in space because I missed my family. I cried when Shiro disappeared and when you got hurt and got stuck in the pod for nearly two weeks. People cry when they miss something.

“But you know what?” Lance crushed the petal in his hand, causing purple juice to run down his arm and into the dirt. He didn’t seem to notice. “When Keith… got caught in that net, I was desperate to get him out. I couldn’t lose a paladin when my only job was to protect him, but… it was more than that. He was my friend, my friend’s brother, and… I couldn’t just lose him so easily. Not to the Galra. Not to anybody.

“I miss him. I want him to come back. I want to go and find him myself. I want us to move and not just stand here in the middle of the desert. I miss him with everything I have, so why can’t I cry?”

Hunk sighed and wrapped Lance into a hug. “You haven’t done anything wrong, Lance. People have different ways of coping with different types of loss. There’s nothing wrong if you don’t want to cry, or if you can’t. Do you want to tell me what’s actually bothering you?”

Lance pressed his face into Hunk’s chest and didn’t reply for a moment. His fist was still tight around the flower, crushing the petals into powder and the juice into the ground. The two were very quiet for a few moments, and Lance revelled in the silence.

But the phantom thoughts in his mind refused to go away, forcing him to open his mouth. 

“I lied to Shiro,” he muttered. “I told him that I would protect Keith, and I didn’t. I let him trust me. I wasn’t fast enough. I wasn’t good enough.”

“Lance-”

“Yeah, I know. No bad thoughts and all that. I got it.” Lance shifted so that he could lean on his friend without crushing his nose. “But… that’s not the only thing I lied to him about. I told him that Red shut down and that I lost contact with Keith.”

“Lance-”

“Right before the fight began, I-." Lance sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. "God, Hunk, I- I wish I just told him. Keith, I mean. I wish I told him that I- I love him. Like one of those heroic shit scenes from movies before they dive into battle… but usually in the movies one of them doesn’t get captured.”

Hunk’s arms tightened around Lance’s shoulders in a comforting squeeze. “You'll get to tell him later. We're going to get him back. But what else were you going to say?”

“Nothing escapes you, does it?” Lance laughed dryly. “I just think… after everything that happened, losing Keith felt so much harder than it normally wound. I lied to Shiro so many times when I was explaining what happened, but I told myself that it was to help him and… protect him about what went down.”

Lance bit his lip. “I lied when I said that Red shut down. I mean, that part is true, but… the net they were trapped in electrocuted them both. Whatever those stupid purple bolts did to them… it wasn’t painless.”

Hunk sighed, rubbing his hands against Lance’s back. “Oh, Lance. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been.”

“He kept telling me to leave him behind and to escape before they could capture us both and… Hunk, I can’t get the sound of him screaming out of my head. It sounded like he was in so much pain, and I couldn’t do anything to help him, even after Red powered down and he was so silent and I couldn’t hear him anymore and that was worse than the screaming because I didn’t even know if he was still alive-”

Lance broke down into sobs, burying his face into Hunk’s shirt and squeezing his friend as if he was afraid to lose him as well. Fighting back his own tears, Hunk hugged him back and sat in silence, trying to convince himself that they would not lose anybody else.

But Keith wasn’t lost. Not yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Habits by Tove Lo  
> ...  
> Um I'm really sorry this took literal months. TBH I kind of lost interest in voltron after season 7 and especially season 8, but I guess I'll continue posting this, just because it's up already.


End file.
